Next stop was Yangshao, which is a little oasis in a country with big cities, and a big building culture. It seems to be aimed at travellers, from the bus parties following the leader holding a big yellow flag, to the scruffy little guest houses, to the people who could speak English, to the westernized food!! And it even has quite a few expats living there.
And there was shopping!!Streets of shopping!!So we shopped!!!But we had good excuses, firstly, it was sooo bloody cold & I had no warm clothes with me, so I had to go out & stock up on warm clothes & shoes. Secondly, they speak English there, we did'nt know if there was another place in China where they speak English so we had to take advantage of the bartering while we could!!Also, I really didn't want to buy a couple of things, so gave a ridiculous price to get the seller off my back, & they ended up accepting it, it would be rude not to buy it ... no??Consequently, we both left Yangshao with bags heavier than we can even lift, but we are independent girls - & damn it, we are going to carry them!!!
Cat and I were feeling sick yesterday and had a good sleep last night. This morning we decided we were to go rock climbing. I had decided I wanted to do this ever since I planned on coming to Yangshao. We met Echo our climbing guide and set off for Baby Frog Village. I, having never climbed before was feeling pretty nervous but Echo threw me straight into it and set a route up the cliff face. I put on my harness and began to climb, it looked so easy when someone else was doing it but it was actually quite hard, I couldn't believe how tired I felt after a few minutes of climbing! Cat was next, who after climbing for years got a lot further than me, but was just as tired. The second route we did was much easier and I really enjoyed it, I was surprised that I never felt the jelly legs I usually get at such heights I was just scared stiff of falling. On my third climb I got too tired and shouted that I was going to fall, I did, but the harness kept me in place with Echo holding me at the bottom. I just kind of hung in mid air. Once I knew that if I did fall it wouldn’t be very far, I got much more confident. It was a beautiful day, such a difference from the cold weather we’d had for the last few days. It was nice to be in the sun again. The scenery around us was amazing.